Image:
Mask, Papua New Guinea E22244

This dance mask was worn by a young man during an adult initiation ceremony (kaiva kuku). Such masks were usually burnt after the ceremony. Mr Sidney Macdonnell, a trader living in Orokolo Bay in Gulf Province probably acquired the mask in that region; he then sold it to the Museum in 1913.

Description: White, conical-shaped mask; bark cloth stretched over and sewn to cane frame; anthropomorphic head with prominent eyes and open mouth; back of head decorated with a red circle within a black, uneven, nine-pointed star shape; two projecting arms at sides, bent at elbows, with five-fingered hands.